By Richard M. Sherwin, Susan Davis , Christine Eads, Al Reiner,  Gary Kaye, Erick Royer, Richard Macias and Robert Plunkett

Q: I love the Panasonic Smart TV in my den, the oversized Ultra HD Sharp in my living room and my super flat LG TV in my bedroom, but they all seem to have the same problem. When I connect them to my Cablevision D-Link router I sometimes get an error message that they are not connected to the Internet even though it says they are connected to “Optimum”. My own router name is “x4%0kwk.” That’s what it says on the router. I haven’t changed that to my name or something only I can understand. But I see “Optimum”, and many of my neighbors’ names listed on available Wi-Fi access. What’s the difference and why “Optimum” name barely connects to the Internet?

A: This might be the most asked question of the year! It involves Comcast, Verizon FIOS, and several other TV, phone and Internet providers. As we said a few weeks ago on Mom Squad Radio, in order to bring free Wi-Fi to subscribers, your router and others are also providing Internet access outside of your home, sort of banding together individual Wi-Fi homes to provide access to restaurants, retail stores around your neighborhood.  “Optimum,” the name listed on your Wi-Fi access, is accessible by yourself for and other Optimum customers away from home. That Wi-Fi is only available outside of the home and inside too if you choose it for very basic access. Consequently that’s usually the first name that pops up on your Smart TV, PC, Tablet or any other wireless device in the house. Always try and make your own Wi-Fi name the first one on the list by disconnecting (if possible) the service provider’s name. If you find that other Wi-Fi devices in your house are also going on and Off-line, you need to complain to the service provider or make sure your router-modem is delivering the highest broadband level it can produce on your personal Wi-Fi.

Q:  So if I had to buy a tablet, should I get an Android, Apple IOS or Windows 8.1 and what are the best brands?

A:  We still stick with the Android OS and hardware because of its expandability. While the new Windows Tablets also have the ability to add on micro SD cards, USB flash drives and such, and some come with Office 360, they are just not as easy to use as Android based devices. Apple IPads remain the simplest to use, but more and more people, write to us asking what to do when their IPads run out of memory to store favorite pictures, videos, music and documents. Unless you are made out of money, in our opinion, it’s not worth it to purchase the higher end IPads as they are no faster or better and they don’t have better resolution than some off brands tablets.

 At the high end of the Tablet spectrum, we still choose the Samsung family of tablets and would stay away from the many under $100 Android based tablets you find in discount stores, super markets, etc. because they either have an older operating system or have too slow a processor to run most popular Apps and usually have little no customer support.

 The hottest Windows Tablet for under $200 is the very well regarded Next Book. This 11.1 inch Windows Tablet is really a small computer and, unlike Microsoft’s own Surface Tablet, you CAN run many programs affiliated with Google (like Chrome) and many other Apps, that Microsoft doesn’t support on its own devices.

Q:  I have seen a ton of portable Bluetooth speakers; some as little $15 on EBay and Amazon and some as high as $200. What’s the difference? I heard the Bose, Logitech and JBL in a sound room at my local CE store and couldn’t tell the difference, and they’re all about $79.

A: You ears are great. There really is very little difference between those famous manufacturers and they do give a nice base performance and decent range. What we found at the very low price segments was that connecting the Bluetooth speaker to your PC, Tablet or phone was much more difficult with the very cheap brands.

At the very high end of the market, usually over $350, there was NO discernible difference between manufacturers like Beats, Bose, Harmon and Bang and Olufsen, and to be honest, they didn’t seem worth three times the cost of the under $99 models. At the under $75 category, Homedics, Voxx and NYNE all provided decent quality audio at an affordable and portable price.

Q: Is there really a difference between the leading PC and Tablet accessories? I have always been loyal to Logitech, but I saw that Microsoft had some pricier Mice and Keyboards. Also, at Walmart, I saw there were some very very low priced Mice and keyboards and was wondering whether to switch to save a few bucks. Also would you recommend Bluetooth as a wireless way to connect mice and keyboards?

A:  First of all, as far as wireless keyboards go, I would stay away from Bluetooth. No matter what the brand, but especially Microsoft accessories seem to have the most complaints. As reliable as Bluetooth technology is with small speakers and other audio related products, there are so many types of Bluetooth (version one two three etc.) for so many brands of PCs, that we receive the most complaints about connecting computer mice, keyboards, USB hubs, as these devices are rarely up to date with the latest Bluetooth systems. While connecting accessories via USB connector does take away a needed input from your PC, we found that Logitech, is your best bet for reliable connections to your computer as their products use the almost perfect and reliable “unifier” USB wireless receiver instead of the Bluetooth technology for their PCs. Apple and other Tablets seem to have the least complaints for connectivity. Our Microsoft Bluetooth keyboard seems to fail at the most inopportune time. If you are running out of USB inputs on your PC or Mac, you can always get a multiple input extender for $10 to $20.

Q. My issue with PCs, and even when I dare to venture onto my husband’s Mac, is that when I leave these computers for a while and come back to work on them, they freeze on me. Whether it’s the screen saver or the actual program I was working on, no matter how long or short I’ve been away from the device, I can’t get the computer to start working again. My husband always says just hit the ECS key or any place on the keyboard, or move the mouse around, but his extended Bluetooth keyboard doesn’t react.

A: You need to be more patient. Sometimes getting your PC or Mac to the wake state takes a slightly harder tap on any key. But please try to hit the escape key first as that is usually the way to wake most computers up. Whatever you do don’t call your husband. Most likely your Bluetooth keyboard (and mouse) can lose its connection to the PC.

Q. My wife has a myriad of set-top Internet TV boxes like Roku, Western Digital, Netgear (my favorite) or the Google Chromecast (very portable), connected to our super duper Smart Vizio TV in the living room and the Sony Bravia Smart TV in the den. But I can’t stand switching the source button numerous times to get the correct input on the remote just to get to my Blue Ray player, Netflix, You Tube, Amazon Prime, Hulu Plus, my Sony Playstation 4 or my kid’s Xbox. And that’s with getting rid of the truly overrated Apple TV set top box.  Isn’t there a way for me to watch the ballgame, then go back to Netflix without doing a lot of mechanizations?

A: You are in luck both of your TVs have Hulu, Netflix, Amazon and more and all have a button on the TV remote to go directly back and forth to those features. If your cable box remote doesn’t support instant access of the Internet TV features, then there are many universal remote controllers (under $50) that can speed your access to different inputs and features.

Q: Some friends in home with weak broadband access have been using something called Home PNA or Power line wireless to hook up their smart TVs, PCs and other devices. How does that technology stack up against a Wi-Fi router or Modem?

A: Home PNA usually does better than standard Wi-Fi in a apartment or up to a 10,000 square foot home because it uses the AC current to provide wireless access. Unfortunately, many products that are Wi-Fi enabled are NOT Home PNA enabled. But increasingly there are more devices compatible with the home PNA standard.

Q: I just got a 128GB Micro SD card. What is the largest capacity card that a Tablet or mobile phone can use?

A.  A128GB Micro SD card can be used in a PC, but as of now, most Android tablets or mobile phones can only operate 32 GB Micro SD cards. Some Chrome Books and Surface Tabs can take 64GB cards.

Q: I recently got a laptop that doesn’t have a disk drive so I had to download many of my applications and I also recently started to use some software recommended by friends which also required seemingly long complicated downloads. Just when I thought I had downloaded these programs successfully, I found that my search engine had changed, my home page was not what I had always used and there were now tons of other pop ups asking me to download programs, implying a threat top my system if I didn’t comply. What did I do wrong?

 A: You didn’t do anything wrong, but in some of those seemingly innocent downloads…even from reliable companies, you may have agreed unwittingly to add certain attachments to your browser and home page. The worst offenders are the search engine Ask.com and AOL.com which seem to have sold themselves to a myriad of legal downloads. The easiest way to uninstall those offending programs and add-ons is to go to control panel and uninstall them. In some cases you might just go to your regular browser and look for them in the add-on section of the browsers. From not on when you “agree” to download a program make sure you don’t agree to a third party program by declining that option. If you can’t decline that option then call the company that you are downloading from to complain.

Q:  You are always complaining ( and I usually agree) how stupid some of the big computer companies are in making things so difficult to learn and operate. You correctly pointed out that Microsoft’s horrible new operating system literally drove many people to Apple’s Mac, and you predicted that the big box stores would make Microsoft update its 8.1.1 software almost backwards to make it as easy as Windows 7.

You also predicted that the 3D hype would never revive the TV industry (though the technology is still available in many TVs and Blu-ray players. Can you please tell me what, if any, companies are doing the right thing in any technology to make life easier and better for us Luddites?

A: Here are a few…wish there were more:

OUR FAVORITE PRODUCT OF THE YEAR:

THE WALLY HOME WATER/TEMPERATURE/HUMIDITY DETECTION SYSTEM

Wally is a revolutionary detection system that uses a patented sensor network and Hub to detect and alert you of water leaks as well as changes in humidity and temperature, keeping small problems from turning into big, expensive ones.

Wally has been up and running in the DFA model home and, to us, it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread. It took five minutes to setup, even less time to adjust. Simply put any or all of its wireless sensors in your basement, next to your water heater, in any place that you would want to check on the temperature or the humidity (you know, for water leaks) and you can check these things on your Tablet, Smart Phone, PC and Macs. Traveling? Are you the nervous type? You don’t have to keep checking, WALLY will send you a message if something is amiss. When it comes to preventing water leaks and unhealthy mold, Wally has you covered. (FYI, WALLY got its name because it uses the existing wiring within the walls of your home as an antenna.)

OK, THIS IS HARD TO SAY, BUT MICROSOFT GOT SOMETHING RIGHT.

One part of the Windows 8.1.1 echo system is that when you get a Windows 8 PC and you’ve had one before and you can remember your Microsoft password, your purchased Apps, many programs, even software layout of your system comes with you. You don’t get that convenience with Google’s Chrome book or Apple’s Mac.

WE ALSO LIKED THE EPSON SMALL IN ONE XP 820 PRINTER, FAX, COPIER

Another heavily used product that outsmarted its famous competitors was the new Epson Small in One XP 820 printer, fax, and copier. Its screen guided our team through everything from PC set up to Wi-Fi to even paper loading…something that HP, Brother and others haven’t done yet.

FREE ABSOUTELY FREE SOFTWARE!

And finally, something for free and really free, no strings attached If you are looking for a way to avoid Microsoft’s ever increasing prices for Office or the deeply disappointing Microsoft Office 360, a yearly fee based office suite, then it’s time to try the absolutely free (open source) Apache Open Office for your word processing, spreadsheet and presentations or Mozilla’s Thunderbird for your email substitution of Outlook. In the last few months, we have found more and more tech professionals or savvy PC users are using the above software for their business and personal use. Open sources means that thousands of computer programmers have gotten together to offer what was always supposed to be free, the ability to do basic writing and other functions.